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[pct-l] Embarrassing question



Brian - I think that everyone is a little less comfortable sleeping 
in the wilderness than they are at home.  Once in 1998, I woke up 
in "Bear Alley" in the middle of the night to find a bear staring me 
right in the face!  I just stared at him back and tried my hardest to 
not portray any fear.  In fact, I made up my mind that if I had to, I 
would give it my all so at least the bear would think about going 
after something easier.  Within about 30 seconds (seemed like at 
least 15 minutes), the bear realized that I didn't have anything he 
wanted, or realized that there were easier people to mess with, or 
something...  and he left.  

I must say, that incident made me sleep much less comfortable the 
rest of the trip. However, I have found that if I really push myself 
during the day and get in lots of hiking, then I have no trouble 
falling right to sleep :-)  That's my suggestion: Hike your arse off 
so that you have no choice but to sleep.  Then again, if you are not 
the type of person that likes to push hard when you hike, that may 
not work.

Here is another rough statistic that may help (or hurt, lol):  to 
date, no one has ever been killed by a bear in Yosemite.  However, 
something like 14 people have been killed by deer. I have never 
actually researched that to find out if its true.

good luck.

peace,
dude




> Hi,
> I've been subscribing to this list for close to a year because I'm
> planning my pct thru hike in 2004 (something I've wanted to do
> since I was 16).  I have somewhat of a problem though. I am now 40
> and have been hiking and backpacking since I was a boyscout in
> Oregon and it's one of my passions in life.  When I was around 12,
> I was on an outing with my boyscout troop and during the middle of
> the night something kept slowly walking around my tent with a slow
> heavy breathing for about 1/2 hour (although it seems like an
> eternity).  I layed in my tent totally paralyzed with fear to the
> point where I couldn't even wake up the other guy sharing my tent
> and I never found out what that thing was. I have never forgotten
> that night back in the 70's and ever since then, been unable to
> get a good night's sleep when backpacking.  I usually stay wide
> awake until it starts to get a little light in the east and then
> I'm able to sleep for a couple of hours.  In the past I have only
> done one solo night and now planning another solo trip in the next
> few weeks.  One of my main goals is to work on getting over my
> fear of sleeping in the wilderness.  My love of backpacking
> outweighs my fear and I need some help in making it somewhat more
> easy for me to conquer this.  Any suggestions/comments. Thanks in
> advance, Brian
> 
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